Stetson Allie ended his senior year of high school last year as the 8th best prospect heading into the 2010 Draft. He had a very strong commitment to North Carolina and went undrafted the first day due to high bonus demands. Luckily, for the Pirates, he fell all the way to them in the 2nd round as the 52nd overall pick in the draft.

Allie signed with the Pirates just before the deadline, agreeing to a bonus of $2.25 million. Due to his late signing, he did not pitch last season. This spring, he was assigned to Extended Spring Training as he still had some issues with his control, as evidenced in this video taken by Tim over at Pirates Prospects.

Allie can pump his fastball up to triple digits, but normally sits in the mid-90s range with it. He has a devastating slider, also, which he throws in the high 80s, but can hit the low 90s. His changeup is his third pitch and is still much a work in progress as he did not have to use it much in high school.

On Monday, Allie will take the mound for the State College Spikes in his professional debut. He will obviously be under a strict pitch count and innings limit this season, but it sure is nice to now see what Allie can do.

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Once again, the offense’s inability to score led to another loss. A now expected, excellent start from Jeff Karstens went to the wayside this afternoon as the Pirates lost in 11 innings to Cleveland 5-2.

The Pirates opened up the scoring in the 1st inning with 2 runs on an RBI single by Garrett Jones and an RBI fielder’s choice by Matt Diaz.

Karstens would give up 2 runs (1 earned) over 7 innings of work to lower his season ERA to 2.54. Jose Veras would pitch a 1-2-3 8th inning and Chris Resop and Tony Watson would combine to pitch a scoreless 9th inning. Watson would also pitch a scoreless 10th before giving way to Tim Wood in the 11th. Wood allowed a 3-run homer to Cord Phelps and that was the ball game.

The Pirates had their chances in this game. They left a total of 14 men on base and out-hit the Tribe 11-9. Neil Walker, Brandon Wood, and Ronny Cedeno would each collect 2 hits. Andrew McCutchen, who was given the day off in the field, was the Pirates’ only starter to not collect a hit in his designated hitter role.

The Bucs will look to leave their woeful offense in Cleveland as they come home for a series against the last place Orioles and then a weekend series against the Red Sox.

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The Florida State League All Star Game was played Saturday night between the North and South Divisions with the North winning 5-3. However, that didn’t stop the Marauders from having big days.

1B Aaron Baker was given the game’s Top Star Award as he went 1 for 2 with a 2-run homer and 2 walks for the South. The homer was the South’s 2nd hit of the game after Marauders’ C Ramon Cabrera led off the 4th inning with a single to break up the North’s no-hitter through 3 innings. Cabrera finished the game 1 for 2 with a run scored.

Jarek Cunningham started at second base for the South and went 0 for 2. Cunningham also participated in the Home Run Derby beforehand.

Pitcher Brett Lorin was also at the game, however he did not get to pitch in the game. Kyle McPhers0n was named to the team. However, he was unable to participate due to his promotion to AA-Altoona last week.

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Unfortunately (or fortunately, maybe), I was unable to watch a single pitch of this game. I checked the score periodically on my phone throughout the night and things seemed to be going bad once I figured out the Pirates had not gotten a hit over the first 5 innings.

Paul Maholm gave up 4 runs over 6.1 innings and Tony Watson gave up his first run of his ML career. Jose Veras pitched a clean inning in relief, which is a good sign, though.

The Pirates’ only run came in the 6th inning on an RBI single by Lyle Overbay. The Bucs would only muster up 4 hits on the evening.

They will look to salvage game 3 of the series tomorrow afternoon. It would be really awesome if they could start hitting the ball.